KPF won the assignment earlier this year, beating out two other companies vying for the job. KPF design principal James von Klemperer tells GlobeSt.com his company's design won because, "We made a point of balancing powerful imagery with strong constructional logic. Any developer of a project this big needs to know that the building makes economic sense."

KPF's design is sleek, slender and cone-shaped. "The tower's uninterrupted curvature and gentle tapered form is reflective of Korean artistry. The seam that runs from top to bottom of the structure gestures toward the old center of city," says von Klemperer. "Elegance of form was one of our prime objectives, following Lotte's desire to bestow a beautiful monument to the capital city skyline."

Von Klemperer says this building is a first for several reasons. It will be the first super tall built in Korea, even though Korean companies have built such buildings in other countries like Dubai and Kuala Lumpur. The building will also be the first to seamlessly contain all the major commercial real estate property types in one structure, creating a kind of vertical city. "The program is the most varied of super tall programs. Instead of two or three major uses, this building has five distinct vertical zones: retail; office; residential; hotel and observation."